The Excellence of the Religious Vocation

Religious life is
better in itself

Everyone wants to be happy, and no
one wants to be unhappy. Men desire many things for the sake of happiness, but
happiness itself they desire for its own sake. Many men desire to be rich or
powerful because they think that will make them happy, but no one desires to be
happy in order to be rich or powerful. So happiness is the goal, and other
things are desirable insofar as they lead to this goal.

Since happiness is our final goal,
it is most important for us to know what happiness is, and the means by which
we may attain it. One who’s ultimate goal in life was to reach the South Pole
would do everything in his power to ensure that he could reach it: obtain maps
of the mountains and other obstacles, find the best means of transportation,
train himself for the journey, etc. Similarly one who would attain happiness
should learn where it is and how to get there.

This is no easy matter. We have but
to look at all the different theories about happiness that philosophers have proposed,
to see that it is difficult to determine the truth regarding it. Were we on our
own, we would be likely to fall into error. But by God’s grace, we are not on
our own; our faith tells us where happiness lies and how to reach it. By faith
we know that our ultimate happiness lies in heaven, in the vision of God as he
is in himself.[1] Here on
earth we are but wayfarers, journeying towards that final vision.

Our faith does not merely tell us
where our happiness lies, and leave us to find the way to it, but also tells us
the way there. There are certain things that our faith tells us are essential
for reaching this goal: the commandments, the sacraments, prayer. “If you do
not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you.” With respect
to these things there is only one right way, on which every person must walk.

There are other things that may be
helpful, but are not necessary for reaching this goal: parenthood, the
priesthood, religious life, the various professions. With respect to these there
are many other ways that lead to the goal.

In this section we look at the
premise that religious life in itself is better. First we will establish the
fact that it is better, and then explain why it is better, and what that means.

“Religious life” here means any
life according to the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
We will first consider chastity, the “determining commitment of the state of
consecrated life,”[2] then
poverty, obedience, and all three together.

Christ
counsels perpetual chastity in contrast to marriage. But counsel is given in
regard to a better good; he would not give this counsel if marriage were better
or just as good as perpetual chastity. Therefore perpetual chastity is better
than marriage.

The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with
his wife, it is not expedient to marry.” But he said to them, “Not all men
accept this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs
who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs
by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of
the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”[3]

St. Paul
likewise teaches the superiority of virginity or continence.

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them
to remain single as I do.[4]

He who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains
from marriage will do better.[5]

The
Fathers, following in the footsteps of Christ and St. Paul, always regard chastity
devoted to God as a greater good than marriage.

Ye virgins, be subject to Christ in purity, not counting
marriage an abomination, but desiring that which is better, not for the
reproach of wedlock, but for the sake of meditating on the law.[6]

… You would find many among us, both men and women, growing old
unmarried, in hope of living in closer communion with God.[7]

“If a wife or husband
die, and the widower or widow marry, does he or she commit sin?” “There is no
sin in marrying again, but if they remain unmarried, they gain greater honor
and glory with the Lord; but if they marry, they do not sin.”[8]

The Church has also constantly
taught the excellence of chastity dedicated to God over marriage. We select
only a few from the very many passages on the subject; first from the Council
of Trent, which defined it as a dogma.

“If anyone says that the married state is to be preferred to
the state of virginity or celibacy, and that it is not better and happier to
remain in virginity or celibacy than to be joined in matrimony, let him be
anathema.”[9]

Pope Pius
XII wrote an entire encyclical on virginity and celibacy devoted to God. It is
an excellent work for those interested in reading more about it.

32. This doctrine of the excellence of virginity and of
celibacy and of their superiority over the married state was, as We have
already said, revealed by our Divine Redeemer and by the Apostle of the
Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy
council of Trent[10], and
explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church.
Finally, We and Our Predecessors have often expounded it and earnestly
advocated it whenever occasion offered.[11]

After the Second Vatican Council,
the Church put a greater emphasis on marriage as a means to holiness. For this
reason some have thought that virginity and celibacy should no longer be
considered as better than marriage, but as equally good. But the Church never
says this, and indeed continues to teach the opposite, that while marriage is a
great good, consecrated virginity or celibacy is even greater.

Without in any way undervaluing human love and marriage—is not
the latter, according to faith, the image and sharing of the union of love
joining Christ and the Church?[12]—consecrated chastity evokes this union in a
more immediate way and brings that surpassing excellence to which all human
love should tend.[13]

The reference to the nuptial union of Christ and the Church
gives marriage itself its highest dignity: in particular, the sacrament of
matrimony introduces the spouses into the mystery of Christ's union with the
Church. However, the profession of virginity or celibacy enables consecrated
persons to share more directly in the mystery of this marriage. While conjugal
love goes to Christ the Bridegroom through a human union, virginal love goes
directly to the person of Christ through an immediate union with him, without
intermediaries: a truly complete and decisive spiritual espousal. Thus in the person
of those who profess and live consecrated chastity, the Church expresses her
union as Bride with Christ the Bridegroom to the greatest extent. For this
reason it must be said that the virginal life is found at the heart of the
Church.[14]

Poverty

Similarly,
Christ counsels poverty as a way to perfection, and promises a great reward to
all who embrace it for his sake.

If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. …

Every one who has
left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children or lands,
for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.[15]

As they
taught the excellence of chastity, so the Fathers and Magisterium of the Church
continued to teach the excellence of poverty dedicated to God.

Vigilantius asserts that they who retain the use of their
property, and from time to time divide their incomes among the poor, do better
than they who sell their possessions and lavish them in one act of charity. To
him, not I, but God shall make answer, If thou wilt be perfect, "Go and
sell." That which you so extol, is but the second or third grade; which we
indeed admit, only remember that what is first is to be set before what is
third or second.[16]

13. Religious should diligently practice… that voluntary
poverty which is recognized and highly esteemed especially today as an
expression of the following of Christ. By it they share in the poverty of
Christ who for our sakes became poor, even though He was rich, so that by His
poverty we might become rich (cf. 2 Cor. 8:9; Matt. 8:20)[17]

Obedience

The counsel of obedience is not
found as explicitly in the Scriptures. However, it can be drawn out from his
statement to the young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go…. And come, follow
me.”[18]
Evidently those who followed him had to obey him in a way not required of all.
They had to obey not just the general laws he laid down for all, but also his
commands to them individually.[19]

When Jesus called disciples to follow him, he taught them the
need for an obedience devoted to his
person. This was not only a question of the common observance of the divine
law and the dictates of a true and upright human conscience, but of a much
greater commitment. Following Christ meant being willing to do all that he
personally commanded and putting oneself under his direction in serving the
Gospel for the coming of God's Kingdom (cf. Lk 9:60, 62).

Therefore, in addition to the commitment to celibacy and
poverty, with his "Follow me," Jesus also asked for one of obedience,
which extended to the disciples his own obedience to the Father in the
condition of the Incarnate Word who became the "Servant of Yahweh".[20]

The three evangelical
counsels

Now if each
of these is good by itself, even more is it good to follow all three counsels:
chastity, poverty, and obedience.

That man who by pledging his word to God obliges himself under
vow to observe the counsels, does more than free himself from the snares which
ordinarily slow men down on the way to holiness – fortune, the cares and duties
of marriage, unbridled and limitless liberty – he approaches perfection by a
route so direct and so easy that he seems already to have dropped anchor in the
harbor of salvation.[21]

Even if by virtue of the clerical state itself, the evangelical
counsels are not imposed on ecclesiastics in order that they may be really able
to attain this holiness of life, nevertheless, these same counsels are open to
them, just as to all the Christian faithful, as the surest way to reach the
desired goal of Christian perfection.[22]

Often the
following of the evangelical counsels is encompassed under the term “religious
life”, and then religious life is said to be the better state of life.

The state of virgins consecrated to Jesus Christ, and who are
entirely devoted to his divine love, is of all states the most happy and
sublime.

… It is true that, even in the cloister, there are some
discontented souls; for even in religion there are some who do not live as
religious ought to live. To be a good religious and to be content are one and
the same thing; for the happiness of a religious consists in a constant and
perfect union of her will with the adorable will of God.

… God alone can content the heart of man. Whoever finds him
possesses all things. Hence St. Scholastica said, that if men knew the peace
which religious enjoy in retirement, the entire world would become one great
convent; and St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that they would abandon
the delights of the world and force their way into religion. Hence, also, St.
Laurence Justinian says that “God has designedly concealed the happiness of the
religious state, because if it were known all would relinquish the world and
fly to religion.”[23]

Many more
authorities could be produced to the same effect; religious life, or the way of
the counsels, is in itself a better way to perfection. But what does that mean?
Does it mean that everyone should be a religious? That a man or woman in
religious life is always better than a man or woman not in religious life?

Because it is cumbersome constantly
to speak about “religious life” and “other ways of life”, in this discussion we
will take one particular way of life, marriage, and talk about religious life
and marriage. These are also the alternatives most often considered when
someone is thinking about his “vocation”.

On the one
hand, simply the fact that religious life is better than marriage does not
imply that it is better for every single person. We can make the general
statement that steak is more nourishing than juice, but it does not follow that
steak is more nourishing for every person. If someone is so allergic to it that
it makes him sick, it is not nourishing for him at all. Similarly the fact that
religious life is better than marriage does not imply that every person in
religious life is better than every married person. On the other hand,
religious life being better cannot simply mean that it is better for some
people, e.g. those called to religious life. If we said that religious life is
better than marriage because it is better for some people, on the same grounds
we could say that marriage is better than religious life because it is better
for some people. If the statement “religious life is a better way of life than
marriage” really means something, there has to be more to it than that.

If we
consider it abstractly, there are two ways we might be able to say that
religious life is better than marriage; in one way with respect to quantity, in
another way with respect to quality. With respect to quantity, we would say
that religious life is better than marriage because it is better in general,
that is, for most people. With respect to quality, we would say that religious
life is better than marriage because religious life is much better for at least
some people than marriage is for anyone, or almost anyone. (Cases of
extraordinary circumstances being excepted.)

If religious life is better with
respect to quality, in other words, if it offers to at least some people much
more of an opportunity to attain great holiness than marriage offers to most
people, we should expect more of the people who follow the counsels to become
saints than the people who do not follow them. And this is certainly the case,
for even though relatively few have followed the counsels, the majority of the
saints have been among those who followed them.

The Church has always seen in the profession of the evangelical
counsels a special path to holiness… It is not by chance that there have been
so many consecrated persons down the centuries who have left behind eloquent
testimonies of holiness and have undertaken particularly generous and demanding
works of evangelization and service.[24]

...Religious communities are called to the duty of perfection,
clearly expressed by Christ in his conversation with the young man: "If
you wish to be perfect" (Mt 19:21).

Later,
down the centuries, the Church's tradition has given a doctrinal and practical
expression to these words. The state of perfection is not only theory. It is
life. And it is precisely life that confirms the truth of Christ's words: do
not the majority of canonized saints come from religious Orders or
Congregations?[25]

But is religious life also better
in general, that is, for most people? Or is it only better for a few who have
been specially favored by God? There are many things in the above texts to
suggest that it is better for most people. Christ says, “He who is able to
accept this, let him accept it.” St. Paul similarly says, “it is well for them
to remain single as I do, but if they cannot be continent, let them marry,”
only restricting his advice to be single from those who are unable to do so
properly. Blessed Pope John XXIII says that these counsels are open to all the
Christian faithful as the surest way to reach the desired goal of Christian
perfection. The saints St. Alphonsus cites also seem to indicate that basically
everyone could be happiest in religious life.

If men knew the peace which religious enjoy in retirement, the
entire world would become one great convent… they would abandon the delights of
the world and force their way into religion… God has designedly concealed the
happiness of the religious state, because if it were known all would relinquish
the world and fly to religion.

There is, then, much evidence to
suggest that religious life is better for people in general. But to investigate
this question more carefully, we should look at the reasons for the excellence
of religious life, to see whether they apply only to a few people, or to most.
After that we will have to consider whether most people are able to live
religious life, since if someone can’t live religious life, it is not better
for him to do so.

The reasons for the
excellence of religious life

“If you would
be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” In light of these words of our Lord,
religious life has always been recognized as a “way of perfection”. Being a
“way of perfection” does not mean that it is a way for those who are perfect,
but for those who “would be perfect,” a way for people to become perfect, a
means to help them towards perfection. Why is this? How does the practice of
the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience help men in their
efforts towards perfection?

Christian
perfection consists essentially in charity, which unites us to God. “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like
it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend
all the law and the prophets.”[26]
The other commandments are for the sake of charity, either prescribing things
that follow from charity, as “Honor your father and your mother,”[27]
or prohibiting things that are contrary to charity, as “You shall not kill.”[28]

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who
loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not
commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not
covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.[29]

So charity
is the goal, and the other commandments are means to reach this goal. They are
not optional means, things that make it a little easier to preserve charity.
They are necessary means. If we do not keep the commandments, we do not truly
love God or neighbor, at least not with supernatural love. St. John goes so far
as to say, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”[30]

Besides the
commandments, other means are provided for the sake of charity, namely
counsels. Chief among these are the three evangelical counsels, namely
chastity, poverty, and obedience. As counsels, in contrast to commandments,
they are not necessary means; we can have charity without them. But while they
are not necessary, they are still helpful for increasing and preserving
charity.

The holiness of the Church is fostered in a special way by the
observance of the counsels proposed in the Gospel by Our Lord to His disciples.
An eminent position among these is held by virginity or the celibate state… This
perfect continency, out of desire for the kingdom of heaven, has always been
held in particular honor in the Church. The reason for this was and is that
perfect continency for the love of God is an incentive to charity, and is
certainly a particular source of spiritual fecundity in the world.[31]

How do these counsels help us to
grow in charity? By removing the delight that can be legitimately taken in
earthly things, these counsels enable us to love God more. By removing the
anxiety that arises in regard to these things, they enable us to attend to the
things of God. Recall the parable of the sower, and the seed which fell among
thorns, which is “he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the
delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”[32]
The cares and delights of the world will not always choke the word and prevent
it from bearing fruit. But even when they do not, they can still hinder it from
growing as well it as it otherwise would. Thus taking away these cares and
delights provides a more favorable state for the growth of the word. Finally,
the evangelical counsels help us to give ourselves more perfectly to God.

There are then three basic ways in
which these counsels help us towards the perfection of charity. They help us to
restrain our attachments to earthly things, they help us to be attentive to the
things of the God, and they give us a way to more fully give ourselves to God.
We will consider each of these ways in turn.

Freedom from
attachment to worldly things

First, the evangelical counsels
free our hearts for a greater love of God, and our neighbor for the sake of
God. For by these three counsels we give up the things of this world, which can
become obstacles to our love for God.

The things of this world are in
themselves good. “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very
good.”[33]
Because they are good, we naturally love them, and there is nothing wrong with
that. It would be wrong for us to love these things for their own sake, to make
them our final goal. To make our ultimate aim to amass as much wealth as
possible is incompatible with love for God. "No one can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”[34]
About this kind of love St. John says, “Do not love the world or the things in
the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.”[35]

But even when we do not make the
things of this world our final goal, they can still hinder our love for God.
Because our human heart is so limited, the use of these things, though good,
can make it harder to grow in love for God. Giving up these things, therefore,
frees us for a greater love of God.

Now the
things of this world are threefold; there are external goods, goods of the
body, and goods of the soul. These are given up in a fundamental way by
chastity, poverty, and obedience. By poverty one gives up one’s external goods;
by chastity the greatest good of the body, which is found in the love between
man and woman; and by obedience the goods of the soul. Thus, while these three
counsels are not the only counsels, they are the most radical, and in a certain
way contain many of the others, which involve giving up these goods only
partly, or only for a time. For example, if someone gives alms, he gives up a
part of his possessions; if someone abstains from sexual relations for a time
to devote himself to prayer, he gives up sexual intercourse for a time.[36]

We can discover the bases of the economy of Redemption by
reading the words of the first letter of St. John: "Do not love the world
or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is
not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of
the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And
the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God
abides forever." (1 Jn 2:15-17)

Religious profession places in the heart of each one of you,
dear brothers and sisters, the love of the Father: that love which is in the
heart of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. It is love which embraces the
world and everything in it that comes from the Father, and which at the same
time tends to overcome in the world everything that "does not come from
the Father." It tends therefore to conquer the threefold lust. "The lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" are hidden
within man as the inheritance of original sin, as a result of which the
relationship with the world, created by God and given to man to be ruled by
him, was disfigured in the human heart in various ways. In the economy of the
Redemption the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience
constitute the most radical means for transforming in the human heart this
relationship with "the world"…

Against the background of the phrases taken from the first
letter of St. John, it is not difficult to see the fundamental importance of
the three evangelical counsels in the whole economy of Redemption. Evangelical
chastity helps us to transform in our interior life everything that has its
sources in the lust of the flesh; evangelical poverty, everything that finds
its source in the lust of the eyes; and evangelical obedience enables us to
transform in a radical way that which in the human heart arises from the pride
of life.[37]

Freedom from anxiety
over worldly things

Secondly,
these three counsels take a man’s care and anxiety away from worldly things,
allowing him to have undivided devotion to the Lord. For as man’s desires, so
his cares are found especially in three things: external things, the care of
which is taken away by poverty; a spouse and children, the care for whom is
taken away by continence; and his own actions, the care of which is taken away
by obedience.[38] Thus St.
Paul says that it is better to be unmarried in order to be free from anxieties.

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is
anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married
man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests
are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of
the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious
about worldly affairs, how to please her husband.[39]

These
reasons may seem negative, and in a way they are. However, they must be
understood in a positive light; there is no point in giving things up unless
one is seeking something better. For example, there is nothing good in itself
about remaining unmarried. It would even be bad to remain single so as to be
free to spend all one’s time in partying and self-indulgence. In order for it
to be truly meaningful, one who refrains from giving his love to a human spouse
must do so in order to give it more fully to God, and to all of his fellows on
earth.

Total offering to God

Thirdly, by
these three counsels, especially when confirmed by vow, one offers all he has
to God; his exterior goods by poverty, his body by chastity, and his soul by
obedience.[40] This reason
is not independent of the previous two; indeed, it is only valid because of
them. We cannot give up just anything good, and have it be an offering to God. Committing
suicide, for example, is not making an offering of our lives to God. So it is
first of all necessary that what we give up be something we can legitimately
give up. But more than this, it is necessary for it to be given up for
something better, something that helps us to draw near to God. It is only
because the evangelical counsels in themselves provide the best means to draw
near to God that by them we can make a total gift of ourselves to God.

This total
gift of oneself to God, when accepted and confirmed by the Church, is a true
consecration of the person to God.

Your vocation, dear brothers and sisters, has led you to
religious profession, whereby you have been consecrated to God through the
ministry of the Church, and have been at the same time incorporated into your religious
family. Hence, the Church thinks of you, above all, as persons who are
"consecrated": consecrated to God in Jesus Christ as His exclusive
possession…

Religious
profession creates a new bond between the person and the One and Triune God, in
Jesus Christ. This bond develops on the foundation of the original bond that is
contained in the Sacrament of Baptism. Religious profession "is deeply
rooted in baptismal consecration and is a fuller expression of it." (25)
In this way religious profession, in its constitutive content, becomes a new
consecration: the consecration and giving of the human person to God, loved
above all else. The commitment undertaken by means of the vows to practice the
evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, according to the
determinations proper to each religious family as laid down in the
constitutions, is the expression of a total consecration to God and, at the
same time, the means that leads to its achievement.

In thus
giving oneself to God, one also makes God more directly the object of his
thoughts and desires; he more explicitly takes God as his “chosen portion”.[41]
This total self giving to God so as to possess him in turn is very much like
marriage. When a man and a woman fall in love, he desires to give himself
entirely to her, and to have her entirely as his own, and she likewise desires
to give herself entirely to him, and to have him entirely as her own. So one
who falls in love with God, desires to give himself entirely to him, and to
have him as his own. Of course, God cannot be one’s own, one cannot possess
him, in the same way as a woman can possess a man, and a man a woman!
Nevertheless, the Church has always seen a very real likeness between
consecrated virginity and marriage. Throughout Christian history, the virgin
consecrated to God was called the bride of God; so also breaking one’s vows was
considered a kind of adultery. St. Ambrose even defines a consecrated virgin in
this way: “A virgin is one who marries God.”[42]

These
reasons are certainly not exhaustive, but they are the most fundamental. There
are other reasons for consecrated and religious life that are in some ways more
important than these, but they are based upon these three reasons. For example,
the profession of the evangelical counsels is “a sign which can and ought to
attract all the members of the Church to an effective and prompt fulfillment of
the duties of their Christian vocation.”[43]
But this is because the religious “intends, by the profession of the
evangelical counsels in the Church, to free himself from those obstacles, which
might draw him away from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine
worship.”[44]

Now, on the
one hand, these counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, being means to
greater Christian charity, are to be subordinate to it. Thus charity may
sometimes demand that one not follow them, and then one should not do so.

God does not desire that each and every man should observe all the
counsels, but only such counsels as are suitable according to differences in
persons, times, occasions, and abilities, as charity requires. It is charity,
as queen of all virtues, all commandments, and all counsels, in short of all
Christian laws and works, that gives all of them their rank, order, season, and
value.

When your
father or mother actually needs your help in order to live, it is no time to
practice the counsel of retirement to a monastery. Charity requires that you
actually put into execution its command to honor, serve, aid, and relieve your
father or mother. You are a prince and by your line subjects of your crown are
to be kept in peace and safe from tyranny, sedition, and civil war. Need for so
great a good obligates you to beget lawful successors in holy marriage… Is your
health weak, uncertain, and in need of great care? If so, do not voluntarily
undertake actual poverty, since charity forbids it to you. Charity not only
does not permit fathers of families to sell all things so as to give to the
poor; it also commands them to accumulate honestly what is needed for the
education and support of wife, children, and servants.[45]

On the
other hand, these reasons for following the evangelical counsels do not apply
only to a few specific men, but apply generally to men in their fallen
condition. In general, to the degree that we use earthly things, it is harder
to “rise above them”, to set our hearts on God alone. Similarly, to the degree
that we are involved in these things, it is harder to raise our minds to God.
“Man is established between the things of this world and spiritual goods, in
which eternal happiness consists, so that to the degree he adheres more to one
of them, so much does he recede more from the other, and conversely.”[46]
Thus religious life is not better only for a select few, but is generally
better. That is why Christ invites all to receive chastity who are able and
promises the hundredfold reward to “every one who has left father or mother
etc.,” and why John XXIII says that the counsels are open to all of the
faithful as the surest road to Christian perfection.

Thus, when someone is fit for
religious life, in the absence of specific reasons to think otherwise it can be
assumed that it would be better for him if he chose it; and one should not
hesitate to encourage him to do so. St. Thomas says, “those who bring others to
religious life not only do not sin, but earn a great reward,”[47]
adding only that they must not do it by force, bribes, or lies. Many other
saints give similar advice.

28. Go on in your course, and run with perseverance, in order
that ye may obtain; and by pattern of life, and discourse of exhortation, carry
away with you into this same your course, whomsoever ye shall have had power.[48]

Outside the Exercises, we can lawfully and with merit influence
every one who is probably fit, to choose continence, virginity, the religious
life and all manner of evangelical perfection.[49]

Of course, it is necessary for
someone to choose religious life for these reasons. If one were to choose
religious life because one despised marriage, that would be a very bad reason,
which has been condemned numerous times by the Church, e.g., “If any one shall
remain virgin, or observe continence, abstaining from marriage because he
abhors it, and not on account of the beauty and holiness of virginity itself,
let him be anathema.”[50]
Again, to choose religious life in order to be assured of a means of support,
while not so bad as the previous reason, is an insufficient motive for choosing
religious life. It is necessary to have a supernatural motive. In reference to
perpetual celibacy, Christ says, “there are eunuchs who have made themselves
eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Similarly one must choose
religious life “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”

2. Christ,
in his statement, points out especially its finality. He says that the way of
continence, to which his own life bore witness, not only exists and not only is
it possible, but it is particularly efficacious and important for "the
Kingdom of Heaven."… If Christ in his statement points out, before all
else, the supernatural finality of that continence, he does so, not only in an
objective sense. but also in a sense explicitly subjective-that is to say, he
indicates the necessity of a motivation that corresponds adequately and fully
to the objective finality implied by the expression "for the
Kingdom". [51]

Conclusions

It is clear, then, that religious life
is better in general. However, people sometimes talk about this excellence of
religious life in such a way as to make it completely irrelevant. They say that
religious life is indeed better in itself and in general, but that what is
better in general is not important, only what is better for oneself, or only
that to which one is called. If someone is called to marriage, then following
God’s will by marrying, is just as good as for another person to follow God’s
will by entering religious life. Therefore, they conclude, the excellence of
religious life does not provide a motive to choose it.

However, there is a serious problem
with this argument, namely that it is opposed to the intention of those who
teach the superiority of religious life. For example, when St. Paul says, “He
who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do
better,” he intends to give a motive for remaining unmarried. If the
superiority of religious life were in no way a reason for choosing it, this
superiority would be of merely speculative interest, and would not be offered
in order to make people desire religious life. So there must be something not
quite right about this argument.

Yet the argument is not entirely
off-track. It is certainly true that we should make our choices based upon what
is good in our particular circumstances. The mistake lies in too completely
separating what is good in particular circumstances from what is good in
general. In fact, we cannot determine what is good in particular circumstances
without reference to what is good in itself, or in general. So the true
conclusion to be drawn is not that the superiority of religious life does not
provide a motive to choose it, but that it does not always provide a sufficient
motive to choose it; circumstances may make something else better in a
particular case.

Let us consider an analogous example.
In general, driving a car is a quicker way to get somewhere than walking.
However, if someone can take a much shorter route on foot than in a car, as by
walking up a flight of stairs rather than driving 900 yards, he will reach his
destination quicker by walking than by driving. Again, if someone can’t use the
car, because he doesn’t know how to drive, or because he must go through twelve
inches of mud, he will not reach his destination quicker in the car; in fact,
he will not reach it at all. So in particular circumstances, walking may be
quicker than driving. Nevertheless one cannot ignore the fact that the car is
“in itself” a quicker means of travel; otherwise one would have no reason to
drive the car down a highway rather than walk down it.

So given
that religious life is better in general, what are the circumstances that would
make another way of life better? There are two basic ways this can happen, and
they correspond to the two examples with the car. First, there may be a special
good that can only be attained by another way of life. Second, someone may be
unable to attain the good of religious life, either because he cannot live it
at all, or while being able to live it, still cannot live it well and
fruitfully.

Some examples of the first: the king St. Francis
de Sales speaks about, who must marry and raise heirs for the sake of peace;
the soldier St. John Vianney advises; St. Norbert’s advice to the noble, St.
Bernard on the other hand. It does not seem to be possible to prove directly
whether there are few or many such cases. However, if there were very many such
cases, the saints could not give, as they do give, a general recommendation of
religious life to those capable and fit for it. Thus it appears that such cases
are at least relatively rare, and one would need positive evidence for their
existence. In other words, the mere possibility that there might be some great
good one could accomplish outside religious life would not be a sufficient
reason to refrain from entering. One would need positive evidence that such a
great good could be accomplished.

[21] Apostolic Letter Unigenitus Dei Filius, Pius XI, March
19, 1924, to the Superiors General of religious Orders and of other
Congregations for men, in The States of
Perfection, The Daughters of St. Paul, 1967, n. 378

[42] Most properly God is said to be
wedded to the Church, which is the bride of Christ, and here there is
exclusivity. God unites himself to the Church alone inasmuch as the
union of any individual person with God is by being in some way a member of the
Church.